Feed grains used to manufacture commercial livestock feed can vary a great deal in moisture content. Depending on the time of the year and grain type, the moisture content can be as low as eight percent or as high as eighteen percent. This variation has a very significant effect on such parameters as particle size and particle size distribution of the grain in the finished feed, degree of cooking as measured by starch gelatinization, energy density of the feed, and palatability.
In any manufacturing process, the more uniform the incoming materials, the more uniform the finished product. Having moisture as an uncontrolled variable in the feed manufacturing process introduces significant variations in the processing efficiency and finished product quality. Therefore it is highly desirable that all of the grain be of a constant moisture content.